jim lockwood

I'm not following. Bladder cancer == tumor in bladder. Where is the confusion? Be glad the hospital responded so rapidly.

My apology to Coach for the brief thread hijack.

gbvette62

Congratulations! Funny thing, just the other day I was wondering how you where making out with your treatments. Glade to hear your through it! Now you can get back on your 65, and enjoy a good long life going forward!

I don't know how they work it where you had your radiation treatments, but my urologist's radiation center had a bell in the lobby, and when you completed your last treatment, you ring the bell on the way out the door. Everybody in the lobby waiting for their treatment, and all the staff applaud when you ring that bell, and it's a Hell of a great feeling to hear that bell, hear the applause, and to walk out that door for the last time!

silver837

Glad to see you are hanging tough .

jwindarwin

Modern day medicine is pretty amazing. We all need to be thankful for for what is available to us when these things rear their ugly heads.

Lord, thanks 🙏 for todays’ technology and the medics that look out for us!!!

Have a great Sunday

ricks327

Small tumor near the prostate but it didn't penetrate the various layers of the bladder wall, stage 1 cancer was confirmed after the tumor was removed.

jim lockwood

That sounds very standard for early stage bladder cancer. Congratulations on beating it.

JrRifleCoach

Its been a challenge. What they make sound easy is prepping for treatments. Not easy but doable.

The tough part now is dealing with the hormone injections. Small price to pay.

JrRifleCoach

Yep


A great feeling of accomplishment for sure.

Oaker57

Coach, I've been following this in the wings, but didn't want to chime in until I heard your outcome. I went through this and it was a long haul. lots of tests and crazy PSA numbers. Dr was perplexed after 3 biopsies and an MRI with conflicting results that didn't match the PSA's...we watched it for 2 years, and finally I had enough and went for the 2nd opinion. All through this I never had a single symptom of any kind, which made it even tougher for me to stick with it, But I'm lucky I had an insistent wife that pushed me to keep going.
After a new type MRI that saw a lesion, and follow up biopsy, that followed the MRI scan to the lesion, and lots of talk with the doc, it was mutually determined that it needed to come out. At the time, they thought it was 5-10% cancerous...It was now the beginning of Covid, which caused several delays, finally Feb.23, 2021 I went in for surgery, a few hours later I wake up to the Dr. holding my hand to personally tell me that the surgery was unsuccessful due to the robot malfunctioning. I was of course devastated, and honostly, so was he, (No I didn't sue, My son's an Attorney, and no one did anything wrong) The Dr. and staff were in touch with us constantly, he even offered to go with me to any other Dr , if I wasn't comfortable with him doing it any more. I stuck with him, it just felt right.

I had to heal up for 5 weeks just so we could do it again. April 8th I went back, it was a 7 hour surgery, as they found out it wasn't the 5-10% they thought, but 45%, and big enough to push into the bladder. they had to keep checking the walls of the bladder to make sure it hadn't spread, fortunately it hadn't, I was lucky.

I ended up with a 3 day stay, and you know first hand what the next few weeks were like. My biggest concern at this point was continence. Keegle exercises were the key to success. Fortunately, I have a great outcome, my PSA remains at 0.01, and he has now moved me to 6 mos. testing from 3. I'm back to work climbing utility poles, golfing, and just plain grateful to be upright and moving forward.

I told you all this to let you know that your not alone in this, it gets better as long as you stay positive and keep fighting.
Go tell your story it might help another guy going through this. A Dr. once told me, that if men would talk more and tell each other what's going on, we would be much healthier, just look at the woman, they tell each other everything, that's probably why most out live us.

Best of luck in your recovery, stay strong and be proactive!!
God Bless..

JrRifleCoach

Oaker, your words offer encouragement and inspiration to share my story. An old Dr once told me to be proactive and follow my PSA numbers closely. I started having these tests once a year. The rests stayed below 1.0 from when I was 55. Then very slowly crept above 1. by 65. Then I noted the small increases to my primary care Dr who blew me off since my numbers weren't over 4.0. I demanded a referral to a urologist. He felt around commenting a biopsy is in order. The results were alarming as he would have expected my psa number to be a 20.

Fast forward to present. I'm recovering from radiation and feeling pretty good. Especially since wifey and i stood up to some of the Drs bullshit, and always went for a second opinion. Thats the best advise I have to offer..

Oaker57

Good for you Coach, you have to push these guys some time...By the time they took mine out, the PSA had reached a 23....With still no symptoms that I could tell... Even after all I went through, I was lucky to not need any radiation, as of yet...But if my number goes up at all, I most likely will have to. My next PSA is in late February, so I keep my fingers crossed. Stay well sir... And feel free to reach out any time you need to talk about it....
Regards,
Mark